The Mating
Habits of Giraffes

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It once was thought
that giraffes were not very particular in their selection of a mate.10
Recent research, however, has shown that the animals
engage in elaborate courtship rituals to rival those of any mammalian
species. By mid-October, or roughly at the time of the local pumpkin harvest,
adolescent giraffes show a marked increase in a number of otherwise inexplicable
behaviors. Perhaps the most striking of these is a complicated, prancing,
dance-like step that some observers have compared to the fox-trot.11 Previously, this peculiar behavior
had been attributed to a severe itching in the soles of the feet caused
by fleas picked up from
rodents in pumpkin patches. A study completed in 1999, however, definitively
established that giraffe
feet are impervious to fleas.12
Moreover, researchers have noted that this fox-trot behavior is most frequently
observed in young giraffes when members of the opposite sex are in the
local vicinity, some of whom have occasionally been observed to flutter
their eyelashes and howl enthusiastically in seeming appreciation of the
performance.13